Journey to Gymnastics 5: Travelling fitness

During this month I overdid it a little bit… oops.
I went to an adult gymnastics class which I’m trying to go to every month or so, in order to practice on the apparatus. There’s a lot of freedom with it which is awesome but I wanted to make the most of the 2 hours I had there so I kept going over skills and did a bit of conditioning as well.
I totally nailed the straddle over vault and started working on a handspring! I’m so chuffed about this, I feel like it’s a little milestone achieved and one of the goals I wanted to reach by Christmas.
I’m really lacking strength for the uneven bars so I practised just getting onto the bar and off, over and over again.

The next day I COULD NOT MOVE. I have literally never hurt that much from exercise… ever. Apart from my face and feet, every little bit of me ached.
For a couple of days afterwards I felt really fluey. I had no runny nose or cough or anything but I could tell my body needed to rest and I needed to sleep. I lost my appetite so I listened to my body, had lots of water and slept.
After 2 days I was back to normal and could resume training!

The other difficulty I had this month was my holiday! I spent 4 days in Copenhagen and a few days at home seeing family, which made finding time and space for a workout was difficult. I did manage some press ups and stretches in my hotel room though!

Finding suitable food abroad wasn’t the easiest task, either. I did great with smoothies, salads and veggies but had a few too many chips and I ended up eating dinner quite late.
At this stage, I’m totally up for rest days though, so it was nice to have a break and eat different things for a few days. As I was trying to find vegan food in a city I’d never been, that was enough of a challenge!

I’ve really noticed physical changes this month. I can feel that my shoulders and back have got much stronger and my abs feel more toned. Yay!

Weight and Body Fat

While I’m not aiming to ‘lose weight’ I am trying to get my body fat percentage into the ‘athletic range’ which is between 14 and 18% (for a woman). Gymnasts have very low body fat and any extra weight makes skills harder to accomplish.
Here are the changes so far:

At the beginning:
Weight- 140 lb
Body Fat- 22.3%

After 6 weeks:
Weight- 130 lb
Body Fat- 19.1%

I’m so pleased it’s all paying off and didn’t expect it to be so quick! Just for reference I’m 5’6 so am sitting in the slightly lower end of a healthy weight range. I think once my body fat is down to about 17 or 18% my weight will be roughly 123 lb so that’s my aim at the moment.

Diet

As for food, I’ve been cutting carbs towards the end of the day and eating more green veggies. I feel so much better for it; it’s amazing the difference it makes. Other than that, not too much has changed diet-wise.

It’s also worth mentioning that as my trip grew closer I started to get nervous about flying (it’s so annoying) and I was really craving comfort food. I relaxed with the strict protein count and allowed myself some treats. It’s okay to have treats and I think it’s important to listen to your body. If I eat too much protein in one go or too close after doing a workout it makes me feel really sick. I’m trying to be healthy, sensible but also to still live a little!

Sauces are so high in sugar so I’ve been stir frying broccoli, green beans and asparagus with a chilli and a garlic clove. I CANNOT believe it’s taken me this long to try it.
Best. Food. Ever.

My Christmas Goals:

1 Backbend to bridge
I did this onto a mat so I’m so close!

2 Bridge kick over

3 Cartwheel on the high beam with no big mats!
I can do this with mats so just need to overcome the fear factor.

4 Squat on bars, catch the top bar

5 Straddle over on the vaultI TOTALLY DID THIS! I used to do it as a tiny child so I think the muscle memory was still there, it was a case of gaining strength and overcoming fear. I did it and landed it perfectly, huzzah!